Soon you might not need to worry about wasting your food — you could just turn it into leather instead。

也許很快你就無需擔心浪費食物了，相反，你可以把食物變?yōu)槠じ铩?/p>

Undergraduate design students in the Netherlands have come up with a new, eco-friendly process that converts leftover fruit and vegetables into durable, leather-like material, possibly strong enough to be used for car seats, handbags and other products in the future。

幾個荷蘭設計專業(yè)的本科生想出了一種有益生態(tài)的新型工藝，可以把剩余的水果蔬菜轉(zhuǎn)化為經(jīng)久耐用、類似皮革的材料，這種材料相當牢固，足夠可以在將來用以制作汽車坐墊、手提包還有其他產(chǎn)品。

The project, Fruitleather Rotterdam, began as a school assignment. After brainstorming, the group of six decided to focus their work on social issues at the same time, and tackle the widespread problem of food waste。

這一項目名為“鹿特丹水果皮革”，一開始是學校的作業(yè)。經(jīng)過一番頭腦風暴，六人小組決定關注社會議題，解決食物浪費的普遍問題。

"The academy gives us a perfect view over the Binnerotte Square in Rotterdam, where they have a market each Tuesday and Saturday," Hugo de Boon, who focuses on spatial design，said so. “We saw how the square would be completely littered with food waste (at the end of the day)， so ... we realized this was a problem we would want to solve from a designer's point of view."

“學院讓我們對鹿特丹比諾洛特廣場有了全方位的認識，那兒每周二、六都有集市，”專注于空間設計的雨果·德伯恩如是說道。“我們看到廣場每天(日落時分)是怎么垃圾遍地的，所以.。。我們意識到這很成問題，想從設計者的視角來解決。”

Fruitleather Rotterdam began taking leftover food off vendors' hands, and started using fruit — mangos, oranges, nectarines, apples and more — to manufacture material. De Boon said the exact manufacturing process is "the group secret," but he offered the basics: After collecting food waste from the market stands, the team makes sure all seeds are taken out of the fruit before they cut it up and mash it. Then they remove all bacteria from the fruit by boiling it, to ensure that it won't rot. The next step is spreading the paste onto a "specific surface," which de Boon said is "crucial in the drying process." Once it's dried, the raw Fruitleather material is produced。

“鹿特丹水果皮革”項目小組開始從攤販手中取走剩余食物，著手開始用芒果、橘子、油桃、蘋果等水果來制造材料。德伯恩稱，確切的制造工藝流程是其”團隊的秘密“，但他說了基本原理：先從集市攤位收集食物余料，接著團隊確定水果所有的籽兒已取出，再把水果切碎、搗爛。然后，煮沸水果，祛除所有細菌，確保不會腐爛。下一步是把這團糊糊涂到”特定的表面上“，德伯恩稱這是”干燥過程關鍵的一步“。一經(jīng)干燥，水果皮革的原材料也就制作完畢了。

They're hoping to develop new steps in the manufacturing process to improve the quality of the material, and also to meet the needs of specific products, such as furniture and clothing. However, de Boon wants to be clear that they are not focusing on any products in particular. "Many people make the mistake that we are currently just making bags. We used the bag as a visual for the public to show that products can be made out of the material, but it is the material itself that we produce," he said。

他們希望可以在生產(chǎn)過程中多研發(fā)幾道工序以提高材料的質(zhì)量，同時也要滿足特定產(chǎn)品的需求，如家具和服裝。然而，德伯恩明確表示，他們沒有特別想著力研究哪一款產(chǎn)品。“許多人誤以為我們目前就是在做包。我們用包向公眾作視覺展示，這種材料可以用來制作產(chǎn)品，但我們制造的是材料本身，”他說道。